It's a shame that Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski have sold out their constituents to backroom dirty coal industry profits.
Last week Senator Begich joined 32 Republicans including Senator Murkowski in signing a letter to President Obama urging him to bend to industry pressure and establish mere guidelines, not enforceable federal regulations, for the disposal of the nation's second largest industrial waste stream: toxic coal ash. Since the current regulations were written decades ago, we have learned that the heavy metals in this waste stream are harmful to children and sensitive populations in even trace amounts.
In Fairbanks, unwitting residents near the downtown Aurora Energy power plant and widespread dirty coal ash dumps and storage sites have been enduring unnecessary and chronic exposure to a substance known to be full of harmful toxins for decades due to weak state regulations and virtually non-existent oversight. Windblown coal ash has plagued the Tanana Valley Farmer's Market and College Estates subdivision for years. Haphazardly spilled and tracked coal ash from over-filled dumptrucks has plagued First Avenue residents for decades with no end in sight. Rather than weakening protections, our senators should be supporting a hazardous listing for all coal combustion wastes to assure that this waste winds up in engineered, lined landfills which is the only truly safe situation for it to be permanently sequestered.
Our senators clearly weren't thinking about keeping our air and drinking water safe when they signed onto the Conrad-Enzi letter (.pdf), which asks the Obama administration to follow the lead of the Bush EPA and allow coal ash to escape strict controls. These mountains of ash generated each year by our nation's coal power plants contain arsenic, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury, which cause cancer, neurological damage and reproductive harm.
The state's regulations treat coal ash the same as household garbage, yet household garbage certainly isn't left about in random piles to blow in the wind and wash away like coal ash routinely is in Fairbanks. This cavalier attitude towards the risks associated with chronic exposure to dirty coal ash has lead to illness and widespread groundwater contamination in other states. With known groundwater contamination already and often unhealthy air quality occurring in Fairbanks we really need to do all that we can to prevent additional contamination. Like fluoride, this is an industrial waste that we should not be unwillingly exposed to.
There are no federal regulations for coal ash. For residents of a state like Alaska, this is problematic since the state does not have regulations in place to keep our water and air safe. Thanks to Senators Begich and Murkowski, Alaska citizens are likely to remain unprotected from tainted drinking water and toxic dust from poorly regulated coal ash dumping.
Instead of taking a stand for these polluters, we need our senators to protect the citizens of Alaska and support a hazardous listing for all coal combustion wastes.
Russ Maddox has lived in Seward for 29 years and is an active volunteer advocate in the conservation community. He owns and operates a small business to fund his conservation efforts.
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